World: 44th for the Rock

With an eye to the technical
advances of the military art as well as to the fortunes of war,
Corregidor can observe another anniversary this week. Forty-four years
ago, on May Day, Commodore George Dewey slipped in past The Rock on a
starlit night. A signal light from The Rock flashed the warning of his
fleet's approach, but only a gun on El Fraile (now Fort Drum) spat
futilely at the Olympia and her following ships. Next morning the
Spanish fleet, cornered like huddled rabbits off Cavite, was bashed to
bits.